Belize

Travel Infos

We were only in Belize for four nights and drove about 300 miles (485 km) there. In the following, there are a few tips for an individual trip through Belize with your own vehicle, whereby we don’t have too much to write due to the shortness of our stay.

Visa

When we entered the country, we got permission for a four-week stay. This seemed sufficient to us. Upon departure, a farewell fee of B$15/adult was charged.

Health insurance

For our entire trip, we took out family travel insurance from STA-Travel, which had the best cost-quality ratio compared to other providers. It is especially important to ensure that there are no high deductibles.

Vehicle

Vehicle importation for Belize is quite simple, and we didn’t need any help. You get a stamp in your passport where the chassis number has to be listed. You have to take out insurance, and there is a place where it is sold directly after the border. A couple of hundred yards (meters) further on, there is a check point for this. No perishable food and no alcoholic drinks are allowed to be imported. For us, the customs official only looked into the vehicle briefly and didn’t check the closets or refrigerator.

Diesel is expensive, about $8.00/gallon (€1.50/liter). For this reason, we filled the tank in Mexiko and didn’t need to stop at a gas station in Belize.

Driving

The three main connecting roads are tarred, while the rest is gravel or mud. By rain, you have to think three times about whether you want to try driving through a muddy passage or take the risk of getting stuck in it. Even apparently small puddles can be very deep, so the greatest caution is required. In villages, there are the topes which we are familiar with from Mexico, which are called bumps here. In any case, they are much rarer and well marked in Belize. Road signs are sufficient, and the main destinations are always on them.

Eating and drinking

The most typical meal is rice with beans cooked together in a big pot. With this, you have a choice of beef or chicken. You can usually get this kind of meal inexpensively and in abundance at street stands; otherwise, the prices in restaurants are at the average European level. In Belize, excellent rum is produced and available at a low price. Beer is expensive, and wine is very expensive.

Shopping is no problem, and there is a large choice, but the prices are significantly higher than in Mexico. Drinking water is sold in 5-gallon canisters for about $2.50 and can be bought all over.

Safety

Belize is a relatively safe land to travel in. We were often warned about pickpockets in Belize City, where vehicles are apparently also broken into often. Due to the many cyclists without lights and animals on the streets, driving at night is not recommendable.

Climate

We were there in December, and it should have been dry, but the rainy season was working overtime, so it rained almost the entire time and was hot and humid. The rain came down in tropical dimensions: when it rained, it poured.

Traveling with children

There are a lot of cave tours, jungle excursions, and so forth – all of them great if the children are a bit older. For younger children, nothing special is offered, and there is only a not very well-kept playground here and there. The locals in Belize were pretty indifferent in regard to our children; during our excursion to the monkey, the guide didn’t pay any particular attention to the fact that two small children were accompanying us. After so much friendliness to children in Mexico, Belize presented a clear change.

List of Campsites

In Belize, some of the camp-sites are exorbitantly expensive. Spending the night on side streets in villages, on parking lots, or along the coast is no problem. The greatest nuisance comes in the form of the many mosquitoes and sand flies. A good spray and mosquito nets are a partially good solution since the small flies can often get through the netting. The sand flies appear in the low areas, especially near water and on fields. They are a painful scourge, and the only thing that helps is to flee inland. The use of mosquito sprays is limited anyway since your skin reacts sensitively to them after a while. This is why long, light clothing is the best solution.